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Paddle8. Gold Leaf Painting. Gage Opdenbrouw - Paintings and Drawings. Sean Gage Painter and Artist. A vital (and unlearned) lesson from Julius Caesar - Glenn Greenwald. In 63 B.C., Julius Caesar delivered a speech to the Roman Senate in which he conveyed a crucial point, one highly relevant to many of our current controversies.

A conspiracy of prominent Roman citizens, led by the patrician Catiline, had been caught attempting to foment a massive civil war in order to overthrow the Roman government. Their crimes were widely reviled — it was pure treason — and, due to multiple confessions, their guilt beyond dispute. Common citizens were demanding their deaths.
New Battery Cage Investigation Highlights Need for Federal Hen Bill. 'America's Great Debate' Saved Union From War. The Civil War remains the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history and the defining crisis of the nation.

But it might easily have started 12 years earlier. In 1850, California's application to join the Union threatened to unhinge the delicate balance of pro- and anti-slavery forces. The flood of European immigration had shifted power in the House of Representatives decisively to the North.
Arizona’s immigration law at the Supreme Court: Lessons for S.B. 1070 via the Case of the 22 Lewd Chinese Women. Photographer unknown, the Bancroft Library.

When Arizona’s notorious immigration law passed two years ago—seemingly out of nowhere—supporters said the measure would merely “mirror” and “assist” federal immigration enforcement. S.B. 1070, which comes before the U. S. Supreme Court this week, in fact contained harsh new criminal penalties against immigrants in an effort to achieve “attrition through enforcement,” as the state of Arizona puts it. (Or, as Mitt Romney has called it, self-deportation.)
Is Our Economy Too Complicated for Our 18th Century Political System?

Painted by Howard Chandler Christy.

Can a democratic system function efficiently in an advanced economy in our modern, globalized world? A system based, say, on a couple of 18th century documents updated occasionally by nine people in black robes and a two-chambered legislature that must devote at least as much time to the raising of funds to re-elect itself?
Near death, explained - Neuroscience. In 1991, Atlanta-based singer and songwriter Pam Reynolds felt extremely dizzy, lost her ability to speak, and had difficulty moving her body.

A CAT scan showed that she had a giant artery aneurysm—a grossly swollen blood vessel in the wall of her basilar artery, close to the brain stem. If it burst, which could happen at any moment, it would kill her. But the standard surgery to drain and repair it might kill her too. With no other options, Pam turned to a last, desperate measure offered by neurosurgeon Robert Spetzler at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.

Let the words and numbers flow in and out of your head with the sounds of James Harmon, Andrew Bird, Luca Longobardi and lots more. 1. Glaciate - Sephari 2. Maisie & Neville - David Beats Goliath 3.
Timelines: Time travel in popular film and tv. Where The Trees Are. 2012: The End Of The World?
Credits — Design & concept: David McCandless Skeptical Sources: Wikipedia, Associated Press, Astronomical Answers: University of Utrecht, The New York Times, John Hoopes on Tribe.Net, Skeptical Inquirer, GSA Bulletin, NASA, Nature Believer sources: Timewave Zero, 2012: Dire Gnosis, RealitySandwich.com, 2012:TheBook, Calleman.com, Institute For Human Continuity (fake website for 2012 film).

Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.
Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein. [Note: This list of Einstein quotes was being forwarded around the Internet in e-mail, so I decided to put it on my web page.

I'm afraid I can't vouch for its authenticity, tell you where it came from, who compiled the list, who Kevin Harris is, or anything like that. Still, the quotes are interesting and enlightening.]
"Seven Blunders of the World" by Mahatma Gandhi. 40 Belief-Shaking Remarks From a Ruthless Nonconformist. If there’s one thing Friedrich Nietzsche did well, it’s obliterate feel-good beliefs people have about themselves. He has been criticized for being a misanthrope, a subvert, a cynic and a pessimist, but I think these assessments are off the mark.

I believe he only wanted human beings to be more honest with themselves. He did have a remarkable gift for aphorism — he once declared, “It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.” A hundred years after his death, Nietzsche retains his disturbing talent for turning a person’s worldview upside-down with one jarring remark.